Agree. Especially for aspiring rally riders, it's important to spend a lot of time thinking about these situations, to decide how to react.

The number one risk in Rally is dust, in my opinion. Most of the time, you can choose your risk level by slowing down so that you don't hit something, the danger you can't control is someone hitting you, and you can't manage that risk down to 0. But there are a lot of things you can do to minimize it- getting off or at the edge of the track if you aren't at full gas being a prime example. I always think of the rally track the much the way I do an interstate highway- they have the right to be coming along full gas.

Pre-rally, I don't mind seeding like putting Johnny Aubert at 21 in the Dakar this year, clearly, he was going to be on the gas. Chris Birch at 110, well, who knows. In any case, the cream will rise if you let it.

During the race, I agree with you Neil, you should start wherever you finished the day before, regardless of class or expectations.

We did a reverse day at the end of last year, and it was miserable and at times, felt suicidal. I can imagine that's how it feels for a fast guy to be mired back in the mix... but people must be rewarded, and punished, for their performance, it's the only fair way.

Even from Sam's Mums point of view, I agree wholeheatedly with this. I was really worried for Sam's safety at the Sardinia rally and 100% feel he should have been re-seeded at the BEGINNING. I think at the beginning of a rally the elite should be re-seeded if they are due to be starting far back from a safety point of view both for themselves and other participants but I think once the rally is under way no re-seeding should be allowed. All riders out there have fought long and hard to get their placing and it should not be taken away from them under any circumstances due to either rider error or mechanical failure. I think a rule review is in order lol!!